The 2023 convention of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has been marred with violence for yet another year.

Heavy gunshots rocked the old parade ground in Abuja during the convention.

Videos from the scene show students running for their dear lives as gunshots rang out.

NANS, the umbrella body of students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, is currently holding a convention to elect a new set of national leaders.

Some students sustained wounds from the gunshots and machetes after thugs loyal to a candidate began attacking opposition delegates.

Students have taken to social media to comment on the chaos.

“NANS convention abi war?” a user on X asked.

See some of the actions here.

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The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has kicked against a court judgment that mandated the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off its 7-month strike.

National Industrial Court of Nigeria today, September 21, ordered ASUU to call off its ongoing nationwide strike.

Reacting in a statement, NANS National Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, referred to the ruling as a “black market judgment.”

Temitope said the ruling betrayed equity because the Federal Government ought not to drag the academic union before the court in the first place.

The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its 7-month strike. As an association, we feel disturbed to read the news of the judgment because we believe that it betrays equity.

“Ordinarily, the Federal Government is not meant to have dragged ASUU to court. But, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis. And, we want to state categorically that the court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres.

“And, as it stands today, with that court judgment, we maintain that the court has not resolved the problem and we reject the judgment in strong terms. The court could have said that the Federal Government should go and pay rather than say that lecturers who are on strike should go back to classrooms. We were expecting the court to have understood that lecturers are on contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render.

“The only remedy to this strike action is for the Federal Government to accede to the demands of ASUU which the government willingly entered into with them and properly fund education.”

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The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have blocked the road leading to the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos State to protest the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The students, protesting the seven-month strike, blocked a section of the access road to the International airport on Monday morning, September 19.

This caused gridlock as vehicular movement in and out of the airport was stalled.

There was heavy police presence at the scene but this did not deter the protesting students.

Some stranded passengers resorted to carrying their luggage on their heads and trekking to the airport in order not to miss their flights.

The students had last week blocked the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Ibadan-Ife Road.

Watch the video of today’s protest on our Telegram here.

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The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to go on strike in protest of the Federal Government’s plans to increase the fuel price in 2022.

Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, announced this week that fuel subsidy will be removed in 2022, and that fuel price might cost N340 per litre as a result.

According to NANS, it will collaborate with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other Civil Society Organisations to reject the fuel hike plans through a nationwide shutdown.

NANS President, Sunday Asefon, in a statement, on Friday, November 26, told the Federal Government that Nigerians are suffering and can’t afford to be dealt with further with an increase in fuel price.

He said: “NANS is still trying hard to make sense out of this strange proposal. On behalf of the suffering millions of Nigerian students, their parents and other family members, we reject this socioeconomic evil proposal and we shall resist it.

“Nigerians are really suffering. We are in dire socioeconomic straits. We are weeping in our hearts and souls. We are dying in silence. We feel the agony and anguish because we are practically involved. Any attempt to aggravate the social woes and economic manacles that we already face and wear will not only be unconscionable but reckless.

“It will amount to testing the patience of Nigerians too far. And we wish to warn against it. The country is very stretched and tensed. In case the government is not aware, we are passing them this intelligence free of charge now.

“Again, we advise, let the government not stretch it further. The consequences will be dire. The people are already flamed, and mendacity will beget mendacity.”

“We have had enough.”

“We know that neo-liberal and imperial economists will soon emerge to confuse themselves with some well-rehearsed stale analysis and commentaries.

“While we hope that Federal Government will heed this patriotic advice, we call on all our comrades, allies and all structures of NANS to be on the alert. Nobody should be swayed or distracted. Because freedom comes by struggle, we shall struggle to free ourselves from further socioeconomic chains,” he said.

NANS, also denounced the proposal announced by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, that five thousand Naira will be paid to 40 million vulnerable Nigerians to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.

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The pioneer President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Sunday Oladele, fought the management of the Yaba College of Technology for the release of his certificate for 41 years. He has finally achieved victory, but unfortunately, he has just died two weeks to his much-awaited convocation.

Oladele’s son Olalekan told The Punch on Tuesday that his father was planning big for his convocation before death came calling.

According to him, the 72-year-old activist was celebrating his victory against YABATECH after the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges in June 2021, ordered that his certificate be given to him after 41 years seizure.

Olalekan spoke with The Punch in Abuja on Tuesday on the sidelines of a press conference addressed by the Chairman of Pa Oladele’s Burial Committee, Senator Dino Melaye, and NANS President, Sunday Asefon.

Trouble started in 1980, when he, alongside a few others, led the rebirth of the students’ movement from the proscribed National Union of Nigerian Students after the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo had, during the ‘Ali Must Go struggle’ led by Olusegun Okeowo, banned student unionism.

He was said to have led others, regrouped them, written a new constitution and in 1980, founded NANS.

Melaye said, “This effrontery later earned him and most of his colleagues different consequences such as expulsion, rustication and withholding of their certificates.

“Seeing how long the injustice had persisted, the Senate mandated the management of YABATECH to release forthwith his certificate withheld for 41 years. With the intervention of the Senate Committee, the management of YABATECH agreed to present the departed leader with his certificate at their next convocation but unfortunately, he died two weeks after.”

According to him, a letter would be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Education and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, “to ask that this great Nigerian, who sacrificed all for the betterment of this country and who was denied justice for 41 years, be immortalised.”

Melaye said, “He came to Abuja to fight for justice where he met his untimely death. I want to believe that by the time we put our heads together, the Federal Government must immortalise him because there are people of less national value that have been immortalised by the Federal Government.

“So, the Nigerian students’ body is requesting unequivocally that this great Nigerian be immortalised and one famous national institution in this country named after him.

“We, as students, former students and leaders, still have Students’ Union Buildings that have not been named after individuals. We will encourage through the President of NANS that some of these institutions name their Students’ Union Buildings after this great Nigerian.”

Olalekan said, “I’m his first child and only son; I’ve two sisters. I’m glad that I spoke with him and our last conversation was a good one. He was in high spirits, suffered for 41 years, but died doing what he loves best.

“My father has always talked about his struggles to get his certificate from YABATECH. He was in high spirits, having got that Senate victory and was really looking towards that convocation ceremony in YABATECH in a big way.

“My father fought with love for the masses; it was never a burden to him. He never had any regret. His only regret was that his struggle to see a better Nigeria was not actualised in his lifetime. But other than that, he never had any regret.”

Asked if he felt neglected and abandoned by the people he fought for, Olalekan said he never felt neglected, adding, “If he felt neglected, he would not have continued that struggle even when they denied him his right.”

He said, “Even at his old age (72), he had always continued the fight whenever NANS leadership called him. I won’t like to say he died poor but he didn’t achieve many of the things he really wanted. Because of the certificate issue, he couldn’t get to where he was supposed to be. But then, he wasn’t rich and didn’t die a rich man. But he wasn’t begging before he died.”

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